Catch up...

It seems like I haven't posted in forever.  So much has happened in the past three weeks. Much of it I don't care to talk about, but here are the highlights...

1. My mom and stepdad came to visit over Memorial Day weekend, and it was SO wonderful to spend time with them.  The boys had so much fun playing and visiting!  My mom is so beautiful...inside and out! I cherish the time I get to spend with her in person as well as our many weekly conversations over the phone.  

2. Our neighborhood pool opened over Memorial Day, and I am like a kid in a candy store.  We literally go to the pool every.single.day, even if it's just for a 30 minute dip!  Jude is officially a brown berry!  I grew up on a lake with a pool and our summers were consumed with swimming and water activities.  What else is a kid to do in the heat?! I've also taken to swimming laps again this summer, we'll see how long that lasts.  

3. Jude is riding his bike like a pro now!  It took all of one afternoon for him to get the hang of it.   By the third day of being an official bike-rider, he was starting and stopping on his own.  He continues to be a quick learner in all of the areas I assumed would be challenging in raising a kiddo (potty training, swimming, writing his name, etc.).  Yay Jude!  

4.  Jude has officially been accepted into the preschool program we were hoping for!!!  It was a lottery this year  by random selection...some got in, some didn't.  He will start in August and will go Monday-Friday from 9-11:30.  I feel a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders to know where he will be going!  Now I can prepare him and start talking it up:).  

5.  When Jude grows up he would like to be Cat In The Hat!  He informed me of this last week, and he's brought it up a few more times.  I asked him why Cat in the Hat, and he said, "Connor wants to be a fire fighter and everybody else wants to be something else, but I bet nobody wants to be Cat in the hat!"  Sounds good to me!  At the pool today he said, "Moo Zow Bam Boozle, come on mom, my thingamajigger is waiting for us right over there!"  All said using his very best Martin Short Cat in the hat voice, of course.  I love that he is unique and doesn't want to be something that someone else has thought of.  I will soon encounter the day when I have to break it to him that growing up is not like Halloween, he will have to have a real job.  For now he can dream!  

6.  Jude hit a pole on his bike when my mom was here and cut his upper lip pretty bad.  We just noticed last night that one of his big front teeth is turning gray:(.  I'm just sick over it.  It is a baby tooth, but still.  I called the dentist today and they told me that it could just be bruised (who knew teeth got bruised?!), and that it could lighten up again.  I sure hope so!  

7.  Rhett is a fearless child!  At the beach and pool leading up to this weekend his only interest was playing with toys on the sidelines of the water.  Dallas called me from the pool on Saturday and asked me to bring a floaty because Rhett wouldn't get out of the water.  I took them yesterday, twice, and Rhett took a running start and leaped right into the water.  He sank to the bottom where he then put both of his arm straight out and casually floated to the surface.  I purposely observed, rather than panic, because I wanted to see his reaction.  I was, of course, an arms length away for rescuing purposes.  As I held him in the water he was constantly peeling my hands away from his body...wanting to swim all by himself like "Ju-Da".  Today was the same story, only he calmly walked over to the deep-end, sat on his bottom, turned around onto his tummy and lowered himself into the water...ugh!  I don't have enough eyes on my head to keep track of this one!  

8.  I recently started doing Billy Blanks Cardio Inferno video.  It was on an end-cap at Sam's for $8.88...who could refuse that?!  I've tried to hit the gym for bootcamp, but I am completely horrible about going (Sorry Megan!).  I don't care for the Jillian Michael's 30 day shred that I've done on and off, so I thought, why not!  In the video he talks about always exercising with purpose, to put your all into each workout and to not waste the opportunity to get all of your muscles working. I've been putting this to practice on my runs by contracting my abs and squeezing my glutes firm for the entire 3.2 miles.  I've also started doing random sprints throughout my run and for the last minute to the home-stretch.  Um yeah, this is hard!  I might even describe it as horrific, but I do think it's making a difference!  I'll keep you posted.  Oh, and if you happen to be driving through my neighborhood and see a crazy girl sprinting and looking constipated...no worries, that's me!  

9.  This stuff is unbelievable!  

I bought this last week for my bible study and just added some colorful peanut m&m's to the mix...it was a huge hit!  It has everything from corn nuts to sesame sticks, and a little sweet and heat too!  I ate nearly a 1/4 of the jar before anyone even got to my house...no worries... I will go run and squeeze my slightly larger glutes to remedy this situation:).  

9.  We are officially road warriors!  It seems like we have a bajillion trips in the works right now.  We were in Florida last month, Dallas is in Boston right now (I was supposed to be with him), I will head to IL with the boys for a few weeks at the end of June, Dallas will drive to Atlanta with his brother for a golf tournament while we are away, family vacation with the Hughes gang in July and our friend Kenny's wedding the first week of August in Minnesota.  We may try to slip in a trip to Austin to go to Schlitterbahn with the Wood's family in early July....we'll see!  I got exhausted just typing this!  

10.  There are a million random and unimportant things I could go on and on about, but I was reminded of something this week that really just put me in my place.  There are literarily tons of people hurting in this world.  People we don't know, but also those who we do know and we encounter every day.  People who are devastated, depressed, heart-broken, lost, searching, scared and broken.  People who need prayer and who need God.  A helping hand, a nice comment, a lunch invitation, a smile, a meal delivered to their house, financial help, a friend...sometimes the littlest things make the biggest difference.  God can use us in these little ways to bless others.  We don't have to go on far away mission trips to find the broken-hearted and people in need, they are all around us.  

A dear friend reminded me of this scripture recently and it just really resinated with me... 

Psalm 34:18 - You Lord, are close to the brokenhearted and save those who are crushed in spirit. 

I pray that God will use me to reach out to the brokenhearted all around me, to be a light in their darkenss!